Plan Advances to Establish Equal Pay between Men and Women in Costa Rica by Law

The Women’s Congressional Commission of Costa Rica approved this past Monday the bill that seeks to establish equal pay between men and women who perform the same job and under the same conditions. This is file 22,522, which implies a reform to the Labor Code to incorporate this legal provision.

Nielsen Pérez, a pro-government deputy who presented the bill, stressed that this initiative seeks to close gaps in the field of remuneration. Pérez stressed that deep down there is a profound wage inequality.

For his part, José María Villalta of the Broad Front, indicated that despite being a constitutional norm, this initiative should be approved in a complementary manner. “Having effective mechanisms to enforce these principles, that is why this file is so important,” he said.

Important Reform

With the proposed reform, article 167 would be read as follows (bold is original and would be what is added to that numeral): “To set the amount of the salary in each class of work and the type of income, the quantity and quality of the income will be taken into account, in accordance with the provisions of subsection f) of article 24 of this Code. For the same job or jobs of equal value performed in the same position, working hours and conditions of efficiency or of equal value, equal remuneration corresponds”.

It is included in the concept of remuneration, the salary or ordinary, basic or minimum salary. And any other emolument in money or in kind paid by the employer, directly or indirectly, to the worker, for the employment of the latter in their ordinary work. Equal remuneration corresponds to categories or jobs valued as equal, similar, different of equal value or reasonably equivalent.

In order to assess the equality of remuneration in categories or jobs, the competent authorities will adopt the measures to design, promote and execute the parameters and objective evaluation of employment.

Discriminatory differences may not be established

Differences based on age, ethnicity, sex, nationality or any other analogous form of discrimination may not be established in accordance with article 404 of the Labor Code.

According to Pérez, if this project is approved, the country would comply with Convention 100 of the International Labor Organization (ILO) to avoid sexual discrimination in salary.

With the approval of the file in the legislative commission, it now goes to the Plenary either for the opening of the motions period or for its vote in the first debate.